Timeline of Poets
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278BC Qu Yuan
(b.~340BC), Chinese poet and scholar, died. His poems included “The
Lament,” written following the capture of Yingdu, capital of Chu, by
General Bai Qi of the state of Qin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qu_Yuan)
100BC The Greek poet Meleager
gathered a collection of poems in his “anthologia” (The Greek
Anthology).
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.W10)
54BC Gaius Valerius Catullus
(b.~84BC), Roman poet, died about this time. He became famous for his
epicurean lifestyle and erotic poems.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus)(Econ,
2/23/08, p.103)
37BC Virgil (b.70BC), Roman poet,
authored the 4th of his Eclogues. This included text regarding the
newborn son of Consul Polio in which Virgil said the child would
initiate a golden age in which lion and lamb would lie together amid
peace and plenty. Early Christians took this as a prediction of Christ.
(WSJ, 12/29/07, p.W12)
699 Li Po (d.762), classical
Chinese poet, was born. His poems included "Drinking Alone With the
Moon."
(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A26)
815 Abu Nawas, Arab poet, died.
His odes included verses on Baghdad liquor that was "as hot between the
ribs as a firebrand."
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.68)
1207 Sep 30, Jalal ud-din Rumi
(Jelaluddin Rumi, d.1273), Persian poet and mystic was born in the area
of Balkh, Afghanistan. He later fled the Mongol invasions with his
family to Konya (Iconium), Anatolia. His work “Mathwani” (Spiritual
Couplets) filled 6 volumes and had a great impact on Islamic
civilization. He founded the Mevlevi order of Sufis, later known as the
“whirling dervishes.” In 1998 a film was made about the Sufi poet’s
influence on the 20th century. In 1998 Kabir Helminski edited “The Rumi
Collection” with translation by Robert Bly and others. His work also
included the “Shams I-Tabriz” in which he dismissed the terminology of
Jew, Christian and Muslim as “false distinctions.” The poet Rumi was
also known as Mowlana.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.B5)(SFEC, 9/20/98, DB p.50)(SFEC,
10/25/98, BR p.6)(WSJ, 9/7/01, p.A14)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.B7)(SSFC,
4/1/07, p.E3)
1265 May 9, Dante Alighieri,
Italian poet (Divine Comedy), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.367)(MC, 5/9/02)
1304 Jul 20, Francisco Petrarch
(d.1374), Italian poet and scholar, founder of Renaissance Humanism,
was born in Arezzo. He was educated at Avignon and saw himself as a
Florentine, Italian, and man of the world. He was a poet and autodidact
who never stopped studying until his death.
(V.D.-H.K.p.131)(HN, 7/20/98)
1321 Sep 13, Dante Alighieri,
author (Divine Comedy), died. [see Sep 14]
(MC, 9/13/01)
1321 Sep 14, Dante Alighieri
author of the "Divine Comedy," died of malaria just hours after
finishing writing "Paradiso." The poem was completed in Italian rather
than Latin just before his death and helped make Italian the dominant
linguistic force in European literature for the next several centuries.
[see Sep 13]
(HFA, '96, p.38)(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.W2)(HN, 9/14/00)
1374 Jul 18, Francesco Petrarch
(69), Italian poet (Italia Mia), died.
(SSFC, 7/25/04, p.E3)
1479 Jorge Manrique (b.1440),
Spanish military hero and poet, died.
(SSFC, 9/3/06,
p.M3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Manrique)
1529 Jun 21, John Skelton (69),
English poet, died.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1533 Jul 6, Ludovico Ariosto (57),
Italian poet (Orlando Furioso), died.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1534 Gratien du Pont, a French
poet, published a chessboard with 64 rhyming insults to females, one
for each square.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.76)
1550 Apr 12, Edward de Vere, 17th
Earl of Oxford, was born (d.1604). Some claimed that he was responsible
for all the 37 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long narrative poems that are
attributed to William Shakespeare. De Vere was first advanced as the
author of Shakespeare’s work in 1918 by English schoolmaster J. Thomas
Looney.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)(WSJ,
4/18/09, p.A2)
1557 Richard Tottel edited “Songes
and Sonnettes,” later referred to as “Tottle’s Miscellany.” This came
to be regarded as the first important anthology of English verse.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.W10)
1568 Sep 5, Tommasso Campanella,
Italian philosopher and poet, who wrote “City of the Sun,” was born.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1591 Aug 24, Robert Herrick,
English poet (Gather ye rosebuds) was baptized.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1591 Dec 14, San Juan de la Cruz
(b.1542), Spanish poet, died. He is remembered for his treatise “Dark
Night of the Soul.”
(SSFC, 9/3/06,
p.M3)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/08480a.htm)
1593 Aug 23, Fulvio Testi, Italian
poet (Pianto d'Italia), was born.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1608 Dec 9, English blind poet and
polemical pamphleteer John Milton (1608-1674) was born in London. His
work included "Paradise Lost," Paradise Regained," and "Samson
Agonistes."
(WUD, '94, p.911)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(AP, 12/9/97)
1613 Sep 15, Thomas Overbury
(b.1581), Elizabethan poet, died in London. He was murdered by his
wife, Florence Maybrick, who used an enema of arsenic. The murder was
arranged by Frances Howard, Lady Essex, who felt attacked by Overbury’s
poem “A Wife.”
(WSJ, 6/24/05,
p.W9)(http://search.eb.com/shakespeare/micro/445/8.html)
1616 Apr 23, Miguel de Cervantes
(b.1547), Spanish poet and novelist, died in Madrid.
(AP, 4/23/97)
1616 Apr 23, William Shakespeare
(b.1564), poet and playwright, died in Stratford-on-Avon, England. In
2004 Stephen Greenblatt authored “Will In the World.” In 2006 Colin
McGinn authored “Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays.”
(AP, 4/23/97)(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.W7)(SSFC, 12/24/06,
p.M1)
1621 Jul 8, Jean La Fontaine, poet
and author of Fables, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1627 Luis de Gongora y Argote
(b.1561), Spanish poet, died.
(SSFC, 9/3/06,
p.M3)(www.spanish-books.net/literature/i_gongora.htm)
1631 Mar 31, John Donne (b.1572),
British metaphysical poet, died in London. In 2006 John Stubbs authored
“Donne: The Reformed Soul.”
(www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebio.htm)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.79)
1631 Aug 9, John Dryden, the 1st
official poet laureate of England (1668-1700), was born at Aldwinkle,
Northamptonshire.
(HN, 8/9/02)
1635 Aug 27, Lope Felix de Vega
(72), playwright, poet (Angelica, Arcadia), died.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1637 Aug 6, Ben Johnson (65),
English dramatist and poet, died. In 1960 Jonas Barish wrote "Ben
Jonson and the Language of Prose Comedy."
(AP, 1/4/98)(WUD, 1994, p.771)(SFC, 4/4/98,
p.A24)(MC, 8/6/02)
1644 Poet John Milton published
"Areopagitica," an essay in defense of a free press.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.D2)
1646 Aug 28, Fulvio Testi (53),
Italian poet (Poesie liriche), died.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1647 Apr 1, John Wilmot (d.1680)
Second Earl of Rochester, poet (A Satyr Upon Mankinde), scandalous
pornographer and bawdy playwright, was born. He married Elizabeth
Malet, and carried on an affair with the actress Elizabeth Barry. His
friend, playwright George Etherege modeled the character Dorimont after
him in "Man of Mode." A 1994 play by Stephen Jeffrey titled "The
Libertine," is based on Wilmot’s life.
(WSJ, 3/28/96,p.A-12)(WSJ, 1/14/98, p.A17)
1648 Apr 16, John Luyken, poet,
etcher (Duytse Lyre), was born.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1664 Jul 21, Matthew Prior,
English poet, was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1667 Aug 20, John Milton published
Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1678 Aug 16, Andrew Marvell
(b.1621), English poet (Definition of Love), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1680 Jul 26, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl
of Rochester, poet, courtier, died.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1683 Jul 3, Edward Young, English
poet, dramatist and literary critic, was born. His work included "Night
Thoughts."
(HN, 7/3/99)
1695 Apr 17, Sor Juana Ines de la
Cruz (b.~1648), Mexican nun and poet, died of plague.
(SSFC, 9/3/06,
p.M3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sor_Juana)
1700 May 1, John Dryden (b.1631),
English poet, playwright (Rival Ladies), died. He had written that
repentance was virtue of weak minds and the want of power to sin.
(MC, 5/1/02)(Econ, 7/24/04, p.70)
1712 The poem “The Rape of the
Lock” by English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was anonymously
published in Lintot’s Miscellany. It was revised, expanded and reissued
under Pope’s name in 1714.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Lock)
1719 Jun 17, Joseph Addison (47),
English poet, writer, secretary of state, died.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1750 Jul 28, Philippe Fabre
d'Eglantine, poet, satirist, politician, was born in France.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1759 Jan 25, Robert Burns
(d.1796), poet and song writer, who wrote "Auld Lang Syne" and "Comin’
Thru the Rye," was born in Alloway, Scotland. He took traditional
Scottish songs and fiddle tunes, and improved upon existing words, or
added verses where they had been lost. "Should auld acquaintance be
forgot, and never brought to mind, should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne. For old lang syne, my dear, for old lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for old lang syne."
(EMN, 1/96, p.4,6)(HN, 1/25/99)(SFC, 12/30/99,
p.A13)(MC, 1/25/02)
1759 Aug 24, Ewald C. von Kleist
(44), German poet, died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1761 James Macpherson (1736-1796),
Scottish poet, announced the discovery of an epic on the subject of
Fingal (related to the Irish mythological character Fionn mac
Cumhaill/Finn McCool) written by Ossian (based on Fionn's son
Oisín). He then published poems by Ossian, the blind 3rd century
poet, which became very popular and later exposed as a fraud.
(WSJ, 7/26/08,
p.W8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macpherson)
1767 Phillis Wheatley's (d.1784)
poetry was published for the first time. She traveled to England in
1773, where her book "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral"
was hailed as the first published by an African American. In 1776 the
African slave-born poet met with George Washington in Cambridge, just
before the British evacuated Boston.
(HNPD, 2/20/99)(SSFC, 7/25/04, p.F3)
1770 Aug 24, Thomas Chatterton
(b.1752), English poet (Revenge), committed suicide.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1771 Jul 30, Thomas Gray (54),
English poet, died. His work included "Elegy Written in a Country
Church Yard" (1751).
(MC, 7/30/02)
1772 Oct 21, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge (d.1834), English poet and author, was born. His work
included "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1797) and "Kubla Khan."
(AP, 9/12/97)(HN, 10/21/00)
1774 Aug 12, Robert Southey,
English poet laureate (1813-1843) and biographer of Nelson, was born.
(HN, 8/12/98)(SC, 8/12/02)
1781 Samuel Johnson (1709-1784),
English lexicographer, essayist and poet, authored “Lives of the Poets.”
(ON, 11/06, p.9)
1782 Aug 18, Poet and artist
William Blake married Catherine Sophia Boucher.
(HN, 8/18/00)
1784 Dec 13, Samuel Johnson
(b.1709), English lexicographer, essayist, poet and moralist best known
for "The Dictionary of the English Language," died. "Patriotism is the
last refuge of a scoundrel." -- (To which Ambrose Bierce replied, "I
beg to submit that it is the first.") Johnson, an antagonist of
slavery, left behind an annuity and much of his personal property to
his black valet, Francis Barber (b.1735-1801). In 1791 Boswell wrote
the celebrated "The Life of Samuel Johnson." In 1955 Walter Jackson
Bate (d.1999 at 81) published "The Achievement of Samuel Johnson" and
in 1977 the biography "Samuel Johnson." In 2000 Adam Potkay authored
"The Passion for Happiness," in which he argued that Samuel Johnson
should be included in the Anglo-Scottish Enlightenment along with David
Hume, Adam Smith and Edward Gibbon. In 2000 Peter Martin authored "A
Life of James Boswell."
(AP, 10/8/97)(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A24)(WSJ, 11/29/00,
p.A24)(ON, 11/06, p.10)(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.M3)
1786 Robert Burns published his
first book of poetry in Kilmarnock.
(SFC, 9/30/98, Z1 p.3)
1792 Aug 4, Percy Bysshe Shelley
(d.1822), English poet and author who wrote "Prometheus Unbound," was
born in Field Place, England. He married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin,
author of "Frankenstein." He wrote the poem "Adonais."
(WUD, 1994, p.1314)(HN, 8/4/98)
1793 Jul 13, John Clare, English
poet, was born. He was discovered in 1819 and spent his last 30 years
in an asylum. In 2003 Jonathan Bate authored "John Clare: A Biography."
(HN, 7/13/01)(Econ, 10/11/03, p.85)
1793 Augustin Ximenez (1726-1817),
Marquis of Ximenez, a Frenchman of Spanish origin, wrote a poem with
the line “Attaquons dans ses eaux la perfide Albion,” which means "Let
us attack perfidious Albion in her waters." The poet of perfidy later
lectured French soldiers that “Il est beau de perir,” which means “it
is beautiful to perish.”
(SSFC, 1/14/07, p.M4)(http://tinyurl.com/ye6bd7)
1796 Feb 17, James Macpherson
(b.1736), Scottish poet, died. In 1761 he had announced the discovery
of an epic on the subject of Fingal written by Ossian (based on Fionn's
son Oisín). He then published poems by Ossian, the alleged blind
3rd century poet, which became very popular and later exposed as a
fraud.
(WSJ, 7/26/08,
p.W8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macpherson)
1796 Jul 21, Robert Burns (37),
Scottish poet (Auld Lang Syne), died.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1797 Samuel Taylor Coleridge
authored his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
(CW, Winter 04, p.17)
1798 Samuel Taylor Coleridge and
William Wordsworth published "Lyrical Ballads."
(WSJ, 4/15/99, p.A20)
1799 May 26, Alexander Pushkin,
Russian poet (d.1837), was born (OC). His bicentennial in Russia was
celebrated Jun 6,1999. [see Jun 6]
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AHD, p.1062)(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C2)
1799 Jun 6, Alexander Pushkin
(d.1837), Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature,
was born (NC). He was the descendant of an Abyssinian slave of royal
blood who was given to Peter the Great as a gift. His works included
"Boris Godunov," "Eugene Onegin," and "The Queen of Spades." [see May
26]
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AHD, p.1062)(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C2)(HN,
6/6/99)(WSJ, 7/15/99, p.A16)
1800-1820 The classic love poem "The Tale of Kieu"
was written in Vietnam.
(SFC, 9/25/96,
p.E7)(www.deanza.edu/faculty/swensson/kieu.html)
1801 Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
English poet, wrote to Sir Humphrey Davy a letter in which he says: "I
seem to sink in upon myself in a ruin, like a Column of Sand, informed
and animated only by a Whirl-Blast of the Dessert." Coleridge had
become addicted to opium in this year.
(OAPOC-TH, p.71)(WSJ, 4/15/99, p.A20)
1802 Aug 13, Nikolaus Lenau,
German poet (Faust, Die Albigenser), was born in Hungary.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1804 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (32),
poet, fled to Malta and worked as an assistant to the civilian
governor. He returned to England in 1806.
(WSJ, 4/15/99, p.A20)
1809 Aug 6, Alfred Lord Tennyson
(d.1892), English poet laureate (1850), was born. His work included:
"The Charge of the Light Brigade." "Knowledge comes, but wisdom
lingers."
(HN, 8/6/98)(AP, 10/6/00)
1809 Lord Byron (1788-1824)
traveled to Spain, Albania and Greece with John Cam Hobhouse and soon
met with Ali Pasha.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron)
1813-1843 Robert Southey was the poet laureate of
England over this period. He was the author of "The Three Bears."
(SFEC, 2/15/98, Z1 p.8)
1817 Aug 24, Aleksei K. Tolstoy,
[Kozjma Prutkov], Russian poet, writer, was born.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1822 Jul 8, Percy Bysshe Shelley
(b.1792), English poet, drowned while sailing in Italy at age 29.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1823 Dec 23, The poem "A Visit
from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore, often called "Twas the night
before Christmas," was published in the Troy, N.Y., Sentinel. Recent
scholarship reveals the original to have been written by Major Henry
Livingston (1748-1828).
(AP, 12/23/97)(AH, 4/01, p.12)(AH, 2/05, p.18)
1823 Lord Byron returned to Greece
to provide moral support to insurgents and draw attention to Ottoman
massacres of Greek civilians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron)(SFC,
9/7/08, Books p.5)
1824 Apr 19, George Gordon, (6th
Baron Byron, b.1788) aka Lord Byron, English poet, died of malaria in
Greece at Missolonghi on the gulf of Patras preparing to fight for
Greek independence. In 1999 Benita Eisler published the biography
"Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame." In 2002 Fiona MacCarthy
authored "Byron : Life and Legend." In 2009 Edna O’Brien authored
“Byron in Love.”
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.D3)(WSJ, 4/26/99, p.A16)(HN,
4/1901)(SSFC, 12/29/02, p.M2)(SSFC, 6/21/09, Books p.J5)
1827 Aug 12, William Blake
(b.1757), English visionary engraver and poet, died. In 2001 G.E.
Bentley Jr. authored "The Stranger From Paradise: A Biography of
William Blake."
(SSFC, 5/27/01, DB p.73)(MC, 8/12/02)
1832 Feb 22, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe (b.1749), poet, (Faust, Egmont) died in Weimar, Germany. Goethe
had served as minister of mines under Bismarck. He completed "Faust"
just before his death: "When Ideas fail, words come in handy." In 1988
Kenneth Weisinger authored "The Classical Facade: A Non-Classical
Reading of Goethe's Criticism." In 2006 John Armstrong authored “Love,
Life, Goethe: How to Be Happy in an Imperfect World.”
(SFEC, 4/26/98, Z1 p.8)(SFC, 8/7/03, p.A19)(SFC,
12/14/04, p.B1)(WSJ, 1/13/07, p.P10)
1833 Alexander Pushkin, Russian
poet, wrote his poem "The Bronze Horseman" (Myedny Vsadnik).
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.T11)(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P12)
1834 Jul 25, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge (b.1772), English poet, died. He and his friend William
Wordsworth were among the founders of the Romantic Movement in England
and later identified, along with Robert Southey, as the Lake School of
poets. Coleridge’s work included "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,"
"Frost at Midnight" and "Kubla Khan." In his later life he authored the
"Bibliographia Literaria," a work of literary theory. In 1999 Richard
Holmes published "Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804-1834," which
focused on the poet's later life. His volume "Coleridge: Early Visions"
was published in 1989. In 2007 Adam Sisman authored “The Friendship:
Wordsworth & Coleridge.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Coleridge-Taylor)(WSJ, 4/15/99,
p.A20)(WSJ, 2/20/07, p.D8)
1837 Tennyson (1809-1892) wrote
his poem “Locksley Hall.” It included a vision of a tranquil world
“lapt in universal law.” It was published as part of a collection in
1842. The poem embodied the pain of lost love and looked forward to a
time when the nations of the world would abandon war and form a
“parliament of man.”
(WSJ, 6/28/06,
p.D10)(www.firstscience.com/site/POEMS/tennyson4.asp)
1841 Jul 27, Mikhail Yuryevich
Lermontov (b.1814), poet, novelist, died.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1843 Mar 21, Robert W. Southey
(b.1774), British poet laureate and historian, died. In 2006 W. A.
Speck authored the biography “Robert Southey.”
(WSJ, 8/12/06,
p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Southey)
1844 Jul 28, Gerard Manley
Hopkins, English poet and Jesuit priest, was born.
(HN, 7/28/01)
1848 The painter-poet Josef Victor
von Scheffel published cynical poems with titles as 'Biedermann's
Evening socializing' and 'Bummelmaier's Complaint' in the Viennese
satirical magazine 'Fliegende Blätter' (Flying Leaves). These
names were combined into the pseudonym 'Gottlieb Biedermaier' by Ludwig
Eichrodt, who together with Adolf Kussmaul published poems by the
schoolmaster Samuel Friedrich Sauter under this name. The spelling
finally changed into 'Biedermeier' in 1869 when Eichrodt published
'Biedermeier's Liederlust'.
(www.rupertcavendish.co.uk/Biedermeier/WhatisBiedermeier/whatisbiedermeier.htm)
1849 Jul 22, Emma Lazarus,
American poet, was born of Sephardic Jewish parents in NYC. Her poem,
"The New Colossus," is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.
(HN, 7/22/98)(SFEC, 4/30/00, BR p.2)
1850 Apr 23, William Wordsworth
(b.1770), English poet, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth)
1850 Aug 22, Nikolaus Lenau (48)
(pseudonym of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch), Hungarian-born poet and writer,
died in Austria.
(MC, 8/22/02)(Internet)
1850 Sep 2, Eugene Field, author,
poet and journalist, was born. His work included “Little Boy Blue.”
(HN, 9/2/00)(MC, 9/2/01)
1855 Jul 4, One of America's
greatest poets -- Walt Whitman -- published the first edition of his
famous "Leaves of Grass", a collection of 12 poems. Whitman published
the edition himself and had about 1,000 copies printed. He later
recalled about the publication, "I don't think one copy was sold, not a
copy." The book was published in Philadelphia after the Boston district
attorney cited 22 passages as violating a state law against obscenity.
(IB, 12/7/98)(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.9)
1856 Feb 17, Heinrich Heine
(b.1797), German journalist and poet, died in Paris. His prose work
included a series of travel memoirs that began in 1826 with “The Harz
Journey.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine)
1858 Longfellow wrote his poem:
The Courtship of Miles Standish.”
(WSJ, 11/24/04, p.A1)
1859 Aug 28, Leigh Hunt (b.1784),
English poet and essayist, died. In 2005 Nicholas Roe authored “Fiery
Heart: The first Life of Leigh Hunt.” Anthony Holden authored “The Wit
in the Dungeon: The Life of Leigh Hunt.”
(RTH, 8/28/99)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.80)
1860 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882), published his poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” (The Midnight
Ride of Paul Revere).
(WSJ, 10/31/00,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow)
1861 Sir Francis Turner Palgrave
(1824-1897) edited “The Golden Treasury,” a 4-volume anthology of the
best songs and lyrical poems in the English language.
(WSJ, 1/20/07, p.P11)(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.W10)
1863 Aug 14, Ernest L. Thayer,
author of the poem "Casey at the Bat," was born.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1865 Jun 13, William Butler Yeats
(d.1939), Irish poet and playwright, was born to an Anglo-Irish family
in a Dublin suburb. He is best remembered for his poems "Byzantium" and
"Easter 1916." He won the Nobel Prize in 1923. The first volume of his
autobiography was "Reveries Over Childhood and Youth" (1915). Richard
Ellman published a biography in 1948. The book "W.B. Yeats: A Life,
Vol. 1: The Apprentice Mage 1865-1914," by R.F. Foster covered this
period of Yeats’ life. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is his best known
poem. "Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart. / O when
may it suffice?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.365)(WSJ, 4/2397, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/98)(HN,
6/13/98)(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T6)(MC, 6/13/02)
1865 Bret Harte edited the 1st
collection of California poetry from newspaper clippings of poems
compiled by Mary Tingley of San Francisco.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M1)
1865-1914 The book "W.B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. 1: The
Apprentice Mage," by R.F. Foster covered this period of Yeats’ life.
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is his best known poem.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, BR p.6)
1865-1939 William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and
playwright. The first volume of his autobiography was "Reveries Over
Childhood and Youth" (1915). Richard Ellman published a biography in
1948. "Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart. / O when
may it suffice?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.365)(WSJ, 4/2397, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/98)
1867 Aug 31, [Pierre-]Charles
Baudelaire (46), French poet (Journaux Intimes), died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1887 Sep 7, Dame Edith Sitwell
(d.1964), English poet, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Sitwell)
1868 Aug 23, Edgar Lee Masters
(d.1950), poet, novelist, was born in Garnett, Kansas.
(http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3088)
1869 Jul 8, William Vaughan Moody,
poet and playwright (The Great Divide), was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1871 Jul 3, William Henry Davies,
Welsh poet, was born.
(HN, 7/3/01)
1873 Jan 7, Charles Peguy
(d.1914), French poet and writer, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_P%C3%A9guy)
1873 Jul 10, French poet Paul
Verlaine (1844-1896) wounded Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) with a pistol.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud)
1882 Mar 24, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow (b.1807), US poet (Song of Hiawatha), died. He is the sole
American honored with a bust in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.
In 2000 J.D. McClatchy edited "Longfellow: Poems and Other Writings."
(WSJ, 10/31/00,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow)
1886 May 15, Poet Emily Dickinson
(b.1830) died in Amherst, Mass., where she had lived in seclusion for
the previous 24 years. In 2001 Alfred Habegger authored her biography:
"My Wars Are laid Away in Books." In 2008 Brenda Wineapple authored
“White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth
Higginson (1823-1911).
(AP, 5/15/97)(HN, 5/15/01)(WSJ, 11/2/01,
p.W11)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.96)
1887 Aug 3, Rupert Brooke
(d.1915), English poet who mainly wrote about World War I, was born:
"Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night."
(AP, 2/20/98)(HN, 8/3/98)
1878 Jun 12, William Cullen Bryant
(b.1794), American poet and journalist, died. He wrote the bulk of his
poem “Thanatopsis” while still a teenager in Massachusetts. In 2008
Gilbert H. Muller authored “William Cullen Bryant: Author of America.”
(WSJ, 6/20/08,
p.W3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cullen_Bryant)
1889 Jun 8, Gerard Manley Hopkins
(54), poet, died.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1889 Dec, The poem Clancy of the
Overflow by Banjo Paterson 1st appeared in the Christmas edition of
Australia’s Bulletin magazine.
(NG, 8/04, p.10)
1891 Nov 10, J.N. Arthur Rimbaud
(b.1854), French poet and arms merchant (Saison en Enfer), died in
Marseille after doctors amputated his leg. In 1961 Enid Starkie
authored a biography. In 2000 Graham Robb authored "Rimbaud." Rimbaud
stopped writing poetry at age 21 and ended his last years in Africa as
an arms dealer. In 2008 Edmund White authored “Rimbaud: The Double Life
of a Rebel.”
(WUD, 1994 p.1234)(HN, 10/20/00)(SFC, 2/12/02,
p.D3)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.115)
1893 Aug 22, Dorothy Parker
(d.1967), poet, satirist, screenwriter and founding member of the
Algonquin Round Table, was born in West Bend, N.J. "Authors and actors
and artists and such / Never know nothing, and never know much."
(AP, 8/22/97)(HN, 8/22/02)
1893 Jul 19, Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Russian poet, was born.
(HN, 7/19/01)
1894 Jul 18, Charles Marie Leconte
de Lisle (born 1818), French poet, died.
(MC, 7/18/02)(WUD, 1994, p.817)
1894 French poet Pierre Louys
(1870-1925) authored “The Songs of Bilitis” (1894) a book of lesbian
love poetry.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Songs_of_Bilitis)
1895 Jul 24, Robert Graves, poet
and novelist (Goodbye to All That, I Claudius), was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1895 Banjo Paterson wrote his poem
Waltzing Matilda while on holiday in Queensland. The name referred to a
slang term for drifting around the outback with a bedroll (your
matilda) slung over the shoulder. Christina Macpherson adopted the poem
to the Scottish tune “Thou Bonnie Wood o’ Craigielea.”
(NG, 8/04, p.24)
1898 Jul 22, Stephen Vincent
Benet, poet and short-story writer, author of John Brown's Body, was
born.
(HN, 7/22/98)
1898 Aug 24, Malcolm Cowley, poet
and translator, literary critic and social historian was born. He wrote
"The Dream of the Golden Mountains."
(HN, 8/24/98)
1899 Jul 21, Poet Hart Crane was
born in Garrettsville, Ohio.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1899 Aug 24, Jorge Luis Borges
(d.1986), Argentine poet and philosophical essayist, was born in Buenos
Aires.
(WUD, 1994, p.171)(WSJ, 9/21/98, p.A26)(AP, 8/24/99)
1899 Rudyard Kipling authored his
poem “The White Man’s Burden.”
(SSFC, 5/8/05, p.B1)
1902 Feb 1, Langston Hughes,
African-American poet, was born in Joplin, Mo. His books included “Way
Down South.”
(HN, 2/1/99)(SSFC, 7/25/04, p.F3)
1902 Sep 29, William McGonagall
(b~1825), poet, died in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was mocked by literary
critics and had food thrown at him during public readings. He died
penniless and was buried in an unmarked grave. Critics later awarded
him the "world's worst" label because of the crashing lack of subtlety
in terms of rhyme, imagery, vocabulary or repetition. His most famous
poem is about the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, in which 75 people died.
In 2008 35 broadsheets of his original poems were auctioned for $13,200.
(AFP,
5/16/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McGonagall)(WSJ, 5/17/08,
p.A1)
1904 Jul 12, Pablo Neruda
(d.1973), Chilean poet and political activist (Residence on Earth-Nobel
1971), was born as Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in Parral, Chile.
(HN, 7/12/01)(SFC, 7/15/04, p.E11)
1905 Jul 29, Stanley Kunitz, poet,
was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1906 Feb 9, Poet Paul Laurence
Dunbar (33), son of former slaves, died of TB in his hometown of
Dayton, Ohio.
(AH, 2/06, p.15)
1906 Aug 28, John Betjeman
(d.1984), poet laureate of England (1972-1984), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Betjeman)
1907 Sep, The Cosmopolitan
magazine published the epic poem “A Wine of Wizardry” by George
Sterling (1869-1926). The poem and accompanying essay by Ambrose Bierce
sparked critical reaction across the continent. Sterling, Jack London’s
best friend, was the scion of a Long Island whaling family and worked
in an East Bay real estate firm.
(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.M4)
1908 May 25, Theodore Roethke
(d.1963), American poet, was born in Saginaw, Mich.
(AP, 5/25/08)(MT, Summer 01, p.3)
1909 Feb 20, F.T. Marinetti
(1876-1944), Italian poet, published the 1st Futurist Manifesto in the
Paris newspaper Le Figaro. It included the statement: “We want to
glorify war - the only cure for the world…”
(SFEC, 1/3/99, DB p.27)(WSJ, 10/23/08,
p.A15)(www.unknown.nu/futurism/)
1911 Jun 30, Czeslaw Milosz
(d.2004), Polish poet and critic and Nobel winner, was born in
Lithuania. In 2001 his Polish "Milosz’s ABC’s" was published in
English.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.C1)(HN, 6/30/01)
1912 Harriet Monroe, former
Chicago Tribune art critic, founded the monthly Poetry Magazine. In
2002 Ruth Lilly (87), great-grandchild of Eli Lilly, gave the magazine
a $100 million endowment.
(SFC, 11/19/02, p.A3)
1914 Sep 5, Charles Peguy
(d.1914), French poet and writer, died. "It is impossible to write
ancient history because we lack source materials, and impossible to
write modern history because we have far too many."
(AP,
7/28/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_P%C3%A9guy)
1915 Hans Leip, in training for
the Prussian Guard, authored the poem “Song of a Young Sentry.” It
reflected his recent meetings with two women named Lili and Marlene. In
1938 Norbert Schultze of Berlin put it to music. The composition was
then recorded by cabaret chanteuse Lale Anderson and became hugely as
the song “Lili Marlene.” In 2008 Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller
authored “Lili Marlene: The Soldier’s Song of World War II.”
(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.W8)
1915-1939 The book "W.B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. 2: The
Arch Poet," by R.F. Foster covered this period of Yeats’ life.
(WSJ, 11/13/03, p.D8)
1916 Feb 6, Ruben Dario (b.1867),
Nicaraguan poet, died. Dario, one of Nicaragua's best-known poets, is
considered the father of the Modernismo movement.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9028777/Ruben-Dario)
1916 Jul 4, Poet Alan Seeger died
in action at Befloy-en-Santerre. He had enlisted into the French
Foreign Legion at the outset of WW I. He wrote the lines: I have a
rendezvous with death / At some disputed barricade..."
(SFEC, 3/16/97, Z1 p.2)
1917 Harriet Monroe and Alice
Corbin Henderson edited “The New Poetry,” an anthology of contemporary
poets.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.W10)
1918 Jan 28, Lieutenant Colonel
John McCrae (b.1872), Canadian MD and author of the poem Flanders Field
(1915), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae)
1918 Apr 1, Isaac Rosenberg
(b.1890), British WWI war poet, died near Arras, France, during
Ludendorff’s big spring offensive. In 2008 Jean Moorcroft Wilson
authored “Isaac Rosenberg: The Making of a Great War Poet.”
(WSJ, 4/3/09, p.W6)
1918 Jul 30, Poet Joyce Kilmer
(b.1886), a sergeant in the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment, was killed
during the Second Battle of the Marne in World War I. Kilmer is perhaps
best remembered for his poem "Trees."
(AP,
7/30/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Kilmer)
1920 Aug 16, Charles Bukowski,
poet and novelist, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1921 Ezra Pound edited “The Waste
Land” by T.S. Eliot.
(Econ, 12/4/04, p.85)
1922 Jul 17, Donald Davie, English
poet and literary critic, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1922 Feb, Ernest Hemingway met
poet Ezra Pound in a Paris bookstore. Pound was one of the founders of
a school of poetry called Imagism.
(ON, 7/05, p.9)
1922 Henry Lawson (b.1867),
Australian poet, died.
(NG, 8/04, p.1)
1925 Jul 17, Laszlo Nagy,
Hungarian poet, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1926 Nov 17, George Sterling
(d.1926), California poet and critic, committed suicide by swallowed
cyanide in the locker room of the Bohemian Club on Taylor Street in SF.
His wife had committed suicide by poison in 1918.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Sterling)(SFC,
11/16/01, WB p.G4)
1926 California poet Lew Welch was
born.
(SFC, 12/9/03, p.D1)
1927 Jul 28, John Ashbery,
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (Self-Portrait in a Convict's Mirror), was
born.
(HN, 7/28/01)
1928 Philip Levine, poet, was born
in Detroit, Mich. He spent a good portion of his life teaching poetry
in Fresno, Ca.
(SFC, 10/19/04, p.E1)
1929 Jul 15, Hugo Von
Hofmannsthal, playwright, poet, died.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1930 Mar 26, Gregory Corso, beat
poet (Happy Birthday of Death, Long Live Man), was born. He discovered
literature in prison.
(HN, 3/26/01)(SS, 3/26/02)
1930 Aug 16, Ted Hughes, English
poet laureate, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1932 Apr 27, American poet Hart
Crane (b.1899) drowned after jumping from a steamer while en route to
New York. In 1967 R.W.B. Lewis (d. 2002) authored "The Poetry of
Hart Crane."
(AP, 4/27/97)(SFC, 6/17/02, p.B5)
1933 Apr 29, Constantine Cavafy
(b.1863), Greek poet, died in Alexandria, Egypt. The 1996 Greek film
"Cavafy" was a profile of the Greek homosexual poet, and a winner of
Greece’s National Film Award for best feature of the year. Cavafy spent
30 years working as a clerk in the Ministry of Irrigation. In 2006 “The
Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy,” translated by Aliki Barstone, was
published.
(SFC, 6/18/98, p.E4)(SSFC, 6/24/01, DB
p.64)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kafavis.htm)
1933 Jul 18, Yevgeny Yevtushenko,
Russian poet, was born in Zima, Russia.
(HN, 7/18/01)(MC, 7/18/02)
1934 Sep 9, Sonia Sanchez, poet,
was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
(HN, 9/9/00)
1935 Apr 6, Edwin Arlington
Robinson (b.1869), US poet, died. In 2006 Scott Donaldson authored
“Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poet’s Life.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Arlington_Robinson)(WSJ, 1/27/07,
p.P9)
1935 Sep 10, Mary Oliver, Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet, was born in maple Heights, Ohio.
(HN, 9/10/00)
1935 Nov 30, Fernando Pessoa
(b.1888), Portuguese poet, died.
(Econ, 10/04/08,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Pessoa)
1936 Jun 14, G.K. Chesterton
(b.1874), English poet-essayist, died at his home in Beaconsfield,
England. His poems included “The Secret People” (1915). As president of
the Distributist League, he promoted the idea that private property
should be divided into smallest possible freeholds and then distributed
throughout society.
(Econ, 4/2/05,
p.51)(www.online-literature.com/chesterton/)
1936 Aug 16, Spanish poet Garcia
Lorca was arrested in Granada. He disappeared shortly thereafter. The
1997 film "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" was an attempt to depict
the circumstances of his disappearance. Lorca was the author of "Gypsy
Ballads," "Blood Wedding" and "The Poet." Spanish poet Fredico Garcia
Lorca was shot by Franco's troops after being forced to dig his own
grave.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.12B)(HN, 8/19/98)(MT, Spg. ‘99,
p.2)
1936 A poetry movement called “the
Activists” began in the SF Bay Area. It was led by Lawrence Hart
(1900-1996). The movement faded with the rise of the Beat Poets in the
1950s.
(SSFC, 9/4/05, p.F3)
1938 Dec 27, Osip Mandelstam
(b.1891), Russian poet born in Poland to Jewish parents, died while in
transit to a labor camp. In 1998 Emma Gerstein authored “Moscow
Memoirs: Memories of Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam and Literary
Russia Under Stalin.” An English translation by John Crowfoot became
available in 2004.
(SSFC, 9/11/04, p.M3)(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)
1938 Cesar Vallejo (b.1892),
Peruvian poet, died. His 1918 book "The Black Heralds" was translated
into English in 2003 by Rebecca Seiferle.
(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.M4)
1939 Jul 27, Michael Longley,
Irish poet, was born.
(HN, 7/27/01)
1941 Feb 5, Andrew Barton "Banjo"
Paterson (b.1864), Australian poet and journalist, died. He is best
known for his song “Waltzing Matilda.”
(www.whatsthenumber.com/oz/voice/writers/paterson0.htm)(NG, 8/04, p.29)
1944 Violet Kazue de Cristoforo
(1917-2007), California poet, authored “Poetic Reflections of the Tule
Lake Internment Camp.” She was interned from 1942-1946.
(SFC, 10/9/07, p.B5)
1945 Jul 20, Paul Valery (b.1871),
French poet (Le cimetiere Marin, Mon Faust), died at age 73. He was
buried in his home town of Sete.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(MC, 7/20/02)
1945 Adam Zagajewski, poet, was
born in Poland. In 1988 he began teaching at the Univ. of Houston as
well as in Krakow. His books included “A Defense of Ardor,” a
collection of essays translated to English in 2004.
(SSFC, 11/28/04, p.E2)
1946 Jul 27, Gertrude Stein (72),
US-French author, poet (Ida, Tender Buttons), died in France. Her work
included the murder mystery "Blood on the Dining-Room Floor." She once
said of Oakland, Ca.: "There is no there there." Painter Francis Rose
carved the headstone one her grave at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. A
biography of Stein by Linda Wagner-Martin was published in 1996 titled
"Favored Strangers. "
(SFC, 6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)(MC,
7/27/02)
1947 Paula von Preradovic,
Austrian poet, wrote a new Austrian anthem after the old one was
pinched by the Germans.
(Econ, 11/24/07, SR p.3)
1948 Jun 4, Hugh Kenner (d.2003 at
80) met for the 1st time with Ezra Pound in a Washington-area mental
facility. Pound became his mentor and directed him in a number of
literary efforts. In 1951 Kenner turned his thesis into the book: "The
Poetry of Ezra Pound." In 1971 Kenner authored "The Pound Era."
(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.A31)
1949 Zang Kejia (d.2004 at 99),
poet, edited the "Selected Poems of Chairman Mao."
(SFC, 2/7/04, p.A20)
1950 Feb 20, Dylan Thomas arrived
in NYC for his 1st US poetry reading tour.
(www.swansea.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2488&articleaction=print)
1952 Aug 28, Rita Dove, Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet, was born.
(HN, 8/28/00)
1953 Nov 9, Welsh author-poet
Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39 during his poetry-reading blitz
of the US. In 1955 John Malcolm Brinnin (d.1998 at 81), the man who
brought Thomas to America, published "Dylan Thomas in America."
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T5)(AP, 11/9/97)(SFC, 6/29/98,
p.A19)
1953 Czeslaw Milosz,
émigré Polish poet, published “The Captive Mind,” in
which he unpicked the mangling effects of communist thought.
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.76)
1954 San Francisco State Prof.
Ruth Witt-Diamant founded a Poetry Center at SF State.
(SFC, 2/19/04, p.E1)
1954 Strickland Gillilan (b.1869),
American poet, died. His poems included "The Reading Mother."
"...Richer than I your can never be / I had a mother who read to me."
(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.M6)
1955 Oct 7, Allen Ginsberg
(1926-1997) his 3,600-word "Howl" at the Six Gallery at 3119 Fillmore.
Kenneth Rexroth was the host. Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
were in the audience. Other readers included Philip Lamantia, Philip
Whalen, Michael McClure and Gary Snyder. The Gallery was run as a co-op
by poet Robert Duncan, his lover Jess (Burgess Collins) and another
artist. In 2004 Jonah Raskin authored "American Scream: Allen
Ginsberg's "Howl" and the Making of the Beat Generation." In 2006 Jason
Shinder edited “The Poem That Changed America.”
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.D7)(SFC, 10/28/00, p.D1)(SSFC,
4/4/04, p.M2)(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.M3)
1956 Lawrence Ferlinghetti
published a 1st edition of "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. The 1st 1000
copies were printed in Europe and passed Customs without incident.
(www.citylights.com/His/CLhowlhist.html)
1957 Mar 25, US Police and customs
agents seized copies of “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg. In May Ferlinghetti
was arrested along with City Lights manager Shigeyoshi Murao (d.1999)
on obscenity charges. The defending attorney was J.W. Ehrlich. By the
Fall Judge Clayton Horn found the poem of "redeeming social
importance." Shig later managed City Lights and authored the occasional
"Shig's Review." In 2006 Bill Morgan and Nancy J. Peters edited “Howl
On Trial: The Battle for Free Expression.”
(SFEC, 11/28/99, BR
p.10)(www.citylights.com/His/CLhowlhist.html)(SSFC, 11/5/06, p.M3)
1957 Ted Hughes (1930-1998),
British poet, published his first book of poetry "Hawk in the Rain." It
re-defined the shape of post-war English poetry.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A17)(Econ, 11/8/03, p.83)
1958 Jun 28, Alfred Noyes (77),
British poet, essayist (Robin Hood, The Highwayman), died.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1961 Sep, Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(b.1933), Russian poet, published his poem “Babi Yar” at the height of
the Khrushchev thaw. It recalled the 1941 massacre of over 33,000 Jews
at ravine in Kiev, Ukraine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar)
1962 Sep 3, e[dward] e cummings
(ee cummings), US poet (Tulips & Chimneys), died at 67.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1962 Alan Dugan (1923-2003) won
the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for his book "Poems." At the
time Dugan worked in a factory where he made plastic vaginas used to
demonstrate diaphragm insertion.
(SSFC, 9/7/03, p.A29)
1963 Jan 29, Poet Robert Frost
(b.1874) died in Boston at age 88. In 1999 Jay Parini published "Robert
Frost: A Life." Lawrance Thompson authored a 3-volume biography
(1966-1976).
(AP, 1/29/98)(SFEC, 4/18/99, BR p.3)
1963 Sep 3, Louis MacNeice
(b.1907), northern Irish poet, died. His name was often subsumed under
the collective name of Macspaunday, which referred to the generation of
politically-committed 1930s poets: MacNeice, Stephen Spender, W.H.
Auden and C. Day-Lewis. MacNeice’s collected poems were published in
2007.
(Econ, 9/29/07,
p.89)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_MacNeice)
1963 Nazim Hikmet (b.1902),
Salonika-born Turkish poet, died in Moscow.
(www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=291)
1964 Dec 9, Dame Edith Sitwell
(d.1964), English poet, died. "Good taste is the worst vice ever
invented." A book of her collected poems was published in 2006.
(AP,
11/1/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Sitwell)(WSJ, 7/22/06,
p.P10)
1966 Mar 5, Anna Akhmatova,
Russian poet, died in Leningrad. She was born in 1889 as Anna Gorenko
near Odessa, Ukraine. In 2005 Elaine Feinstein authored “Anna of All
the Russias: A Life of Anna Akhmatova.
(www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Anna_Akhmatova)
1967 May 12, English poet laureate
John Masefield died.
(AP, 5/12/07)
1967 May 22, J. Langston Hughes
(b.1902), poet laureate, US author (Tambourines to Glory), died of
complications following surgery at NY Polyclinic Hospital.
(SSFC, 7/25/04, p.F3)
1967 Jul 20, Pablo Neruda received
the 1st Viareggio-Versile prize.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1967 Jul 22, Carl Sandburg (89),
historian and poet (Abraham Lincoln: Prairie Years), died in North
Carolina.
(AP, 7/22/07)
1967 Aug 31, Ilya G. Ehrenburg
(76), Russian poet and propagandist ("Russians, get your
German!"), died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1967 Sep 1, Siegfried Sassoon
(b.1886), WW I English soldier poet, died. His books included “Memoirs
of a Fox Hunting Man” (1928). In 2005 Max Egremont authored the
biography: “Siegfried Sassoon.”
(WSJ, 12/1/05,
p.D9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Sassoon)
1968 Aug 13, In Greece there was
an assassination attempt against Col. George Papadopoulos (1919-1999),
the right-wing military leader, organized by Alexandros Panagoulis
(1939-1976), Greek politician and poet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandros_Panagoulis)
1969 May 4, F. Osbert S. Sitwell
(b.1892), English poet (Who Killed Cock Robin?), died at castle
Montegufoni near Florence, Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osbert_Sitwell)
1970 Jan 10, Charles Olson
(b.1910), American poet, died in NYC. Volume Three of his Maximus Poems
appeared posthumously in 1975.
(SFC, 6/12/06,
p.D8)(www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/olson/life.htm)
1970 Dec 31, Lorine Niedecker
(b.1903), died. She was a Wisconsin-born objectivist-influenced poet.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, BR
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorine_Niedecker)
1971 May 23, In California poet
Lou Welch (b.1926) walked away from Gary Snider’s residence in the
Sierra foothills and was never seen again.
(SFC, 8/15/97,
p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Welch)
1971 Sep 20, George Seferis
(b.1900), Nobel Prize-winning (1963) Greek poet, died. In 2003 Roderick
Beaton authored "George Seferis - Waiting for the Angel: A Biography."
(HN, 3/13/01)(Econ, 11/22/03,
p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgos_Seferis)
1971 Anne Sexton (1928-1974),
American poet and writer, authored "Transformations." It retold classic
fairy stories with a Freudian twist and personal references and formed
the basis for Conrad Susa’s 1973 opera of the same name. Diane
Middlebrook wrote "Anne Sexton: A Biography" in 1991.
(WSJ, 7/2/97, p.A12)(SFC, 6/23/98,
p.D1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Sexton)
1971-1973 Josephine Jacobsen (d.2003), poet, writer
and critic, was appointed consultant in poetry to the US Library of
Congress.
(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.A27)
1972 Jan 7, Poet John Berryman
(b.1914), US poet (Imaginary Jew), leaped to his death from a bridge
above the Mississippi River. He was teaching a graduate course at the
Univ. of Minnesota on America’s character as revealed by its poets.
Carl Rakosi took over the class. His former wife, Eileen Simpson, died
in 2002. Simpson authored her memoir "Poets in Their Youth" in 1982.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berryman)(SFEC,
4/23/00, BR p.1)(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A24)
1972 Jan 8, Kenneth Patchen
(b.1911), American poet, died in Palo Alto, Ca. He was bed-ridden in
his later years from a debilitating spinal injury. His works included
"Before the Brave" and "Hurrah for Anything."
(HN, 12/13/99)(SFC, 3/24/00,
p.D6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Patchen)
1972 Feb 5, Marianne Moore
(b.1887), American poet, died in NYC. Her longest work was the 1923
poem "Marriage." In 1998 her the book: "The Selected letters of
Marianne Moore" was edited by Bonnie Costello, Celeste Goodridge and
Cristanne Miller.
(WSJ, 1/8/98,
p.A7)(www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/moore.html)
1972 Nov 1, Ezra Pound (b.1885),
American poet, died in Italy. In 2007 A. David Moody authored “Ezra
Pound: Poet: The Young Genius 1885-1920.”
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.117)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound)
1973 Aug 17, Conrad Aiken
(b.1889), American Pulitzer winning poet and novelist, died.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/caiken.htm)
1973 Sep 23, Pablo Neruda
(b.1904), Chilean Nobel laureate poet, died of leukemia. One of his
last works, "The Book of Questions," was published in an English
translation in 1991. In 2003 Ilan Stavans edited "The Poetry of Pablo
Neruda." In 2004 Matilda Urrutia’s “My Life With Pablo Neruda” was
translated into English.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.2)(WUD, 1994 p.959)(SSFC,
8/31/03, p.M3)(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.M4)
1973 Herbert Leibowitz, Manhattan
literary critic and college professor, founded Parnassus, a poetry
journal. In 2007 he planned his last issue.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.D12)
1974 Oct 4, Anne Sexton (b.1928),
American poet, committed suicide in Massachusetts. In 1991 Diane
Middlebrook (1939-2007), authored “Anne Sexton: A Biography.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Sexton)(SSFC,
12/16/07, p.A1)
1975 Oct, Eugenio Montale
(1896-1981), Italian poet, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1999
two collections of his poetry were translated and published in English:
Collected Poems 1920-1954" and "Satura 1962-1970."
(SFEC, 2/28/99, BR p.8)
1975 Nov 1, Pier Paolo Pasolini
(b.1922), Italian poet, author and director was murdered. A young male
prostitute was tried and convicted for the murder in 1976.
(http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pasolini.htm)
1977 Sep 12, Robert Lowell
(b.1917), US poet (Near the Ocean), died of a heart attack in NYC. In
2003 Frank Bidart and David Gewanter edited "Robert Lowell: Collected
Poems." In 2005 Saskia Hamilton edited “The Letters of Robert Lowell.”
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rlowell.htm)(SSFC, 7/13/03,
p.M6)(Econ, 7/25/05, p.73)
1979 Feb 9, Allen Tate (b.1899),
poet and exponent of the New Criticism, died in Nashville.
(WSJ, 8/2/08, p.W9)(http://tinyurl.com/5g27ry)
1979 Aug 28, Konstantin Simonov
(b.1915), Russian war correspondent and poet, died in Moscow. His poems
included “Wait For Me” (1942).
(www.simonov.co.uk/biography.htm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Simonov)
1979 Oct 6, Elizabeth Bishop
(b.1911), American poet, died. In 2008 Thomas Travisano and Saskia
Hamilton edited “Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between
Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell.”
(Econ, 11/22/08,
p.97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bishop)
1980 Feb 25, Robert Hayden,
American poet and educator, died in Ann Arbor, Mich. Hayden had studied
under W.H. Auden at the Univ. of Michigan. In 1976 Pres. Gerald Ford
appointed him the 1st African-American consultant in poetry to the
Library of Congress, a post that later became known as Poet Laureate.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hayden)(LSA,
Fall/02, p.7)
1984 Apr 15, William Empson
(b.1926), English literary critic and poet, died. His 1950 book, “Seven
Types of Ambiguity,” changed literary criticism. In 2005 John Haffenden
authored “William Empson: Volume I, Among the Mandarins.” In 2006
Haffenden completed Vol II, “William Empson: Against the Christians.”
(Econ, 6/4/05,
p.79)(www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1427)(WSJ,
12/23/06, p.P10)
1984 May 19, John Betjeman
(b.1906), British poet, died. In 2004 Bevis Hillier authored a 3-volume
biography of Betjeman. In 2006 A.N. Wilson authored a single volume
biography.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Betjeman)(WSJ,
12/2/06, p.P8)
1984 The Library of Congress
renamed the position of Consultant in Poetry to the title Poet Laureate
of the US Library of Congress. The title of the consultant's position
was officially changed by Public Law 99-194 to Poet Laureate Consultant
in Poetry on Dec 20, 1985.
(SFC, 4/6/99,
p.E5)(www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0411/poetry.html)
1985 Dec 2, Philip Larkin
(b.1922), English poet, died of esophageal cancer. He had received the
Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1965. His books included “High
Windows” (1974).
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.W18)
1985 Dec 20, The passage of US
Public Law 99-194 established the position of American Poet Laureate.
In 1986 Robert Penn Warren became designated as the 1st Poet Laureate
Consultant in Poetry.
(www.barclayagency.com/lc_press.html)
1986 Jan, Bob Kaufman, Beat poet,
died in San Francisco at 60. He was born in New Orleans and had been
called the "black American Rimbaud." His work includes "Cranial
Guitar." Much of his work was preserved due to the diligence of his
wife Eileen. Kaufman took a vow of silence after the assassination of
John F. Kennedy and began speaking again after the Vietnam war ended.
His last year was spent under the care of his friend Lyn Wildey.
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.A15)(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A13)(I-witness)
1986 Feb 26, Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet and author Robert Penn Warren was named the first
poet laureate of the US by Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin.
Warren was awarded the post of US poet laureate consultant to the
Library of Congress as the name was changed from consultant in poetry.
(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.A27)(AP, 2/26/06)
1986 Jul 25, Marc Smith, NYC
construction worker turned poet, held the first poetry slam at the
Green Mill jazz club in Chicago. He pitted writers against one another
in a test of writing skills and performance.
(Econ, 8/16/08,
p.83)(www.slampapi.com/new_site/background.htm)
1987 Oct 22, Nobel prize for
literature was awarded to Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996). At an interview
in the Stockholm airport, to a question: "You are an American citizen
who is receiving the Prize for Russian-language poetry. Who are you, an
American or a Russian?", he responded: "I am Jewish".
(http://tinyurl.com/zx2yz)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Brodsky)
1988 Aug 2, Raymond Carver
(b.1938), poet, short story writer (Furious Season), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2)
1988 Robert Duncan, American poet,
died. He and his partner Jess Collins (d.2004) along with Harry Jacobus
founded the King Ubu Gallery in SF in 1953.
(SFC, 5/26/96, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 1/7/04, p.A19)
1989 Sep 15, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author Robert Penn Warren (b.1905), the first poet
laureate of the United States, died in Stratton, Vt., at age 84. He
authored 16 poetry collections and 10 novels that included the 1946
"All the King’s Men."
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A15)(AP, 9/14/99)
1990 Seamus Heaney (b.1939), Nobel
Prize winning poet (1995), wrote the play "The Cure at Troy" based on
Sophocles’ play "Philoctetes."
(WSJ, 12/3/97,
p.A20)(www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/heaney/biography.php)
1992 Jul 9, Poet Adrienne Rich
rejected the US government National Medal for the Arts award due to
radical disparities of wealth and power in America.
(SFC, 7/10/97, p.A10)
1992 Jun 14, Mona Van Duyn
(1921-2004) became the first woman to be named the nation's poet
laureate by the Library of Congress.
(AP, 6/14/97)
1992 Audre Lorde (b.1934),
American influential black lesbian poet, died of cancer. In 1996 the TV
documentary: "A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde
was shown." In 2004 Alexis De Veaux authored "Warrior Poet: A biography
of Audre Lorde."
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.B7)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.M2)
1993 Jul 13, A.K. Ramanujan
(b.1929), Indian poet and scholar, died in Chicago. In 1999 his
collected essays were published.
(WSJ, 4/4/09,
p.W8)(www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Ramanujan.html)
1994 Sep 10, Amy Clampitt
(b.1920), American poet, died. Her books included “Kingfisher” (1983).
In 2005 Willard Spiegelman edited her selected letters: “Love, Amy: The
Selected Letters of Amy Clampitt.”
(WSJ, 7/22/05,
p.W7)(www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=890)
1995 Jul 16, Stephen Spender
(b.1909), English poet and critic, died. In 2004 John Sutherland
authored “Stephen Spender: The Authorized Biography.”
(HN, 2/28/01)(Econ, 6/19/04, p.81)
1996 Mar 18, Odysseus Elytis,
Greek poet and Nobel Prize winner (1979), died in Athens at age 84.
(WSJ, 3/19/96,
p.A-1)(http://dpsinfo.com/dps/mnames.html)
1996 Apr 13, George Mackay Brown
(b.1921), Scottish poet and novelist, died in his hometown of
Stromness, on the Orkney Mainland. In 2006 Maggie Ferguson authored
“George Mackay Brown: The Life.”
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.81)(http://tinyurl.com/fdgky)
1997 Apr 5 Allen Ginsberg
(b.1926), the counterculture guru who shattered conventions as poet
laureate of the Beat Generation, died in New York City at age 70. His
last book of poems "Death and Fame: Last Poems 1993-1997" was edited by
Bob Rosenthal, Peter Hale and Bill Morgan following his death. In 2000
Bill Morgan edited "Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays 1952-1995." In
2001 David Carter edited "Allen Ginsberg: Spontaneous Mind, The
Selected Interviews, 1958-1996." In 2006 Bill Morgan authored “I
Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg.”
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.A11)(AP, 5/5/97)(WSJ, 4/2/99,
p.W6)(SFEC, 5/9/99, BR p.3)(SFEC, 3/5/00, DB p.4)(SSFC, 4/8/01, BR
p.2)(SSFC, 11/5/06, p.M1)
1997 Jul 27, Mohammed Mahdi
al-Jawahri, classical Arab poet, died in Syria. He was the most famous
poet of Iraq from whence he fled in 1979. His work included "Between
Passion and Feeling" (1928) and "Al Jawahri’s Divan" (1935).
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)
1998 Jan 27, In Britain poet
laureate Ted Hughes won the $33,000 Whitbread Book of the Year award
for his "Tales of Ovid."
(SFC, 1/28/98, p.E6)
1998 Jul 28, In Poland Zbigniev
Herbert (b.1924), poet and essayist, died at age 73 in Warsaw. He
insisted that civilization depended on artists’ staking out clear moral
positions resistant to the winds of history and ideology. In 1999
John and Bogdana Carpenter translated "Elegy for the Departure and
Other Poems," and "The King of the Ants: Mythological Essays."
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.B2)(SFEC, 3/28/99, BR p.8)
1998 Oct 7, Ted Hughes, poet
laureate of England, won the $16,930 Forward Prize for best poetry
collection for his "Birthday Letters."
(SFC, 10/8/98, p.E3)
1998 Oct 28, Ted Hughes, British
poet, died at age 68. His work included 35 books of poems, 3 works of
prose, 2 opera libretti, and 4 stage plays. In 2007 Christopher Reid
edited “Letters of Ted Hughes.”
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A17)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.90)
1999 Jul 24, Shoukry Ayyad,
Egyptian poetry critic, died at age 78. His 20 books on Arabic poetry,
language and theater included "The Hero in Literature and Fables,"
"Music of Poetry," and Language and Creativity."
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A17)
2000 Oct 1, Stanley Kunitz (95)
succeeded Robert Pinsky as the US poet laureate.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, BR p.2)
2002 Aug 11, Jiri Kolar (87), a
Czech poet and artist known mainly for his pioneering work in the art
of collage, died in Prague. His poetry books included "Birth
Certificate" (1941)
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 15, Larry Rivers (78),
painter, sculptor, jazz musician and poet, died in Southampton, NY.
Rivers was born as Yitzroch Grossberg in Bronx, NY.
(SFC, 8/16/02, p.A25)(NW, 8/26/02, p.9)
2002 Aug 28, Amiri Baraka, poet
known as LeRoi Jones until 1968, was proclaimed the poet laureate for
New Jersey. Gov. Jim McGreevey later regretted the proclamation
following Baraka's poem "Somebody Blew Up America."
(WSJ, 10/3/02, p.D6)
2003 Apr 5, Kirby Doyle (70), San
Francisco Beat poet and writer, died.
(SFC, 5/14/03, p.A17)
2003 Jul 6, Kathleen Raine (95), a
poet and scholar whose verse explored the realms of nature and the
spirit, died in London. "Stone and Flower" (1943), illustrated by
Barbara Hepworth, was her first published collection, followed by
"Living in Time" (1946) and "The Pythoness" (1949).
(AP, 7/10/03)
2003 Aug 7, F.T. Prince (90),
South African poet, died in Southampton, England. His work included the
WWII poem "Soldiers Bathing."
(SFC, 8/13/03, p.A23)
2003 Aug 16, Haroldo de Campos
(73), Brazilian poet, died in Sao Paulo. He was the best know of the
Brazilian Concrete poets.
(SFC, 8/26/03, p.A19)
2003 Aug 28, The US Library of
Congress said it would name Louise Gluck as the nation's poet laureate.
Her 9 books included "The Wild Iris" (1992).
(SFC, 8/29/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 3, Rasul Gamzatov,
Dagestan poet, died in Moscow. He wrote in Avar, a language spoken by
some 500,000 people in Dagestan. He also wrote the prose work "My
Dagestan."
(SFC, 11/4/03, p.A21)
2003 Nov 4, Charles Causley (86),
English poet, died.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.85)
2003 Dec 12, Fadwa Toukan
(b.1917), Palestinian poet, died in Nablus at age 86.
(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.A31)
2003 Felix Dennis, publisher of
Maxim magazine, published his 1st volume of poetry “A Glass Half Full.”
(WSJ, 2/6/04, p.A6)
2004 Feb 6, It was reported that
John Barr, a Wall Street banker, was named president of the
Chicago-based Poetry Foundation. He replaced Joseph Parisi.
(WSJ, 2/6/04, p.A6)(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.M2)
2004 Mar 12, Natan Yonatan (81),
Israeli poet, died near Tel Aviv.
(SFC, 3/13/04, p.B8)
2004 Apr 25, Thom Gunn (b.1929),
British-born poet, died in SF at age 74. His 1st book, titled "Fighting
Terms" (1954), was recognized as part of the British group called "The
Movement." He moved from England to America in 1954 to live with his
male lover and explore the California culture.
(SFC, 4/28/04, p.B7)(Econ, 5/8/04, p.83)
2004 Jun 3, Eugene Ruggles
(b.1935), SF poet, died in Petaluma, Ca. His books included “Lifeguard
in the Snow” (1977).
(SFC, 6/4/04, B6)
2004 Jun 24, Carl Rakosi (100),
American poet, died in SF.
(SFC, 7/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 13, Christopher Hewitt
(58), disabled gay poet, died. He was among the many poets to have read
at the Café Babar.
(SFC, 7/21/04, p.B7)
2004 Aug 12, Ted Kooser of
Lincoln, Nebraska, replaced Louise Gluck as US poet laureate.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.E20)
2004 Aug 14, Czeslaw Milosz (93),
Polish poet and Nobel laureate (1980), died in Krakow. He was known for
his intellectual and emotional works about some of the worst cruelties
of the 20th century. Milosz was born on June 30, 1911, in Szetejnie,
now Lithuania, and studied law at the University in Vilnius. There, he
published his first book of poems, "Three Winters," in 1936. In 2006
Cynthia L. Haven edited the book “Czeslaw Milosz: Conversations.”
(AP, 8/14/04)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.72)(SSFC, 9/24/06,
p.M5)
2004 Oct 21, Anthony Hecht (81),
American poet, died in Washington DC.
(WSJ, 10/26/04, p.D8)
2004 Dec 2, Mona Van Duyn
(b.1921), US poet laureate (1992), died at her home in University City,
Missouri.
(SFC, 12/4/04, p.B7)
2005 Mar 7, Philip Lamantia (77),
SF Surrealist poet, died in North Beach. His 9 books included “Erotic
Poems” (1946).
(SFC, 3/11/05, p.B7)
2005 Mar 30, Robert Creeley
(b.1926), US poet, died in Odessa, Texas.
(SFC, 4/1/05, p.B7)
2005 May 25, Steve Mason (65),
considered the poet laureate of the Vietnam War, died in Ashland, Ore.
His books included “Johnny’s Song: Poetry of a Vietnam Veteran” (1986).
(SFC, 5/31/05, p.B4)
2005 Jun 9, Richard Eberhart
(101), Pulitzer Prize winning poet, died in New Hampshire.
(http://tinyurl.com/d72om)
2005 Jul 7, Gustaf Sobin (69),
American-born writer and poet, died in France. His work included the
2000 novel “The Fly-Truffler.”
(SFC, 7/13/05, p.B7)
2006 Jun, A fax informed Donald
Hall (77), former poet laureate of New Hampshire, that he would be the
next poet laureate of the US.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Sep 1, Hungarian poet Gyorgy
Faludy (95), a legend of resistance to the rise of Nazism and
Communism, died at his home in Budapest. He spent 1950-1953 in the
Stalinist concentration camp at Recsk. Faludy won international fame
with his autobiographical novel "My Happy Days in Hell" in the 1960s,
which related his escape from fascist Hungary and his return, and
imprisonment, in a country under communist rule.
(Reuters, 9/2/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.96)
2006 Edith Grossman published “The
Golden Age: Poems of the Spanish Renaissance,” her English translations
from the original Spanish works of 8 poets.
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.M3)
2007 Jul 15, Mahmoud Darwish, the
world's most recognized Palestinian poet, delivered a stinging tirade
against Palestinian infighting in his first public appearance in
decades in the Israeli city of Haifa.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 18, Sekou Sundiata
(b.1948), black poet and activist born as Robert Franklin Feaster, died
of heart failure in Westchester, NY.
(SFC, 7/28/07, p.B5)
2007 Nov 8, Samina Malik (23), who
called herself the "Lyrical Terrorist" and penned poems with titles
including "How To Behead," became the first woman to be convicted under
Britain’s terrorism legislation.
(AFP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 15, Berkeley poet Robert
Haas won the National Book Award for his recent collection “Time and
Materials.”
(SFC, 11/16/07, p.A2)
2007 Dec 15, Diane Middlebrook
(b.1939), poet, biographer and teacher, died in SF. Her books included
“Anne Sexton: A Biography” (1991).
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.A1)
2008 Jan 12, Angel Gonzalez (82),
one of Spain's most prominent poets and member of a literary generation
known for its opposition to the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco,
died.
(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 16, In New Zealand Hone
Tuwhare (86), the first Maori poet to be published in English and one
of New Zealand's most celebrated verse writers, died.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Mar 22, Michael Kassel (54),
San Francisco blues musician (the Hellhounds) poet known as Vampyre
Mike, died after a long illness. His books included “Graveyard Golf”
and “Going for the Low Blow.”
(SSFC, 4/20/08, p.B6)
2008 Apr 17,
Aime Cesaire (b.1913), a Martinique poet honored throughout the
French-speaking world and a crusader for West Indian rights, died.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Aug 9, Mahmoud Darwish (67),
a Palestinian poet, died, died in Houston. His poetry eloquently told
of his people's experiences of exile, occupation and infighting.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Sep 28, Konstantin Pavlov
(b.1933), Bulgarian poet and screenwriter, died. He was among the few
Bulgarian intellectuals who dared to assert their professional
independence during the 1945-89 communist regime. Some of his most
popular volumes of poetry are "Sweet Agony" (1991), "The Murder of the
Sleeping Man" (1992) and "A Long Time Ago..." (1998).
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Oct 21, Jordanian police
arrested a local writer for incorporating verses of the Quran, the
Muslim holy book, into his love poetry. Islam Samhan, published his
collection of poems, "Grace like a Shadow," without the approval of the
Jordanian government, and authorities said it insults the holy book.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2009 Jan 5, Turkey restored the
citizenship of its most famous poet Monday in a symbolic step meant to
show it was addressing criticism of its human rights record in hopes of
joining the European Union. Turkey had stripped Nazim Hikmet of his
nationality in 1951 at the height of the Cold War because of his
communist views, branded him a traitor and imprisoned him for more than
a decade. He died in exile in Moscow in 1963.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 18, Moldovan poet Grigore
Vieru (b.1935) died in a car crash. He was admired for his courage in
promoting Romanian, the country's native language, when Moldova was a
Soviet republic. In the 1970s, he wrote "The Little Bee," Moldova's
first Romanian-language school manual for young children.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Feb 20, Christopher Nolan
(43), an Irish poet and novelist, died in Dublin. He had refused to let
cerebral palsy get in the way of his writing. Using a "unicorn stick"
strapped to his forehead to tap the keys of a typewriter, Nolan
laboriously wrote out messages and, eventually, poems and books as
well. His autobiography, "Under the Eye of the Clock: The Life Story of
Christopher Nolan," won the prestigious Whitbread Award in 1988.
(AP, 2/22/09)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.91)
2009 Apr 28, Ursula Askham
Fanthorpe (b.1929), a highly regarded English poet, died near her home
in Wotton-under-Edge in western England. She was first inspired by the
human tragedy she saw in a neurological hospital.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, Britain awarded the
role of national poet laureate to Carol Ann Duffy (53), the first woman
to hold a post that has been filled by William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord
Tennyson and Ted Hughes. Duffy, a gay woman, has published more than 30
books, plays and children's stories as well as poems that mix
accessible modern language with traditional forms.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 3, David Bromige (75),
London-born poet and former Sonoma State Univ. professor, died in
Sebastopol, Ca. He was Sonoma County’s 2nd poet laureate (2001-2003).
(SFC, 6/17/09, p.B4)
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